Media Channel Performance 101 for Marketers

Once you move past the hurdle of actually getting an impression in front of your targets, marketers want to know what is considered good or bad by industry averages. Many of the newer or emerging channels don’t have enough data yet to get as granular to answer questions like “What is a good click through rate for OTT ads for the home remodel or repair industry when using a modeled third-party prospect file.” What is available are averages across industries to help with benchmarking and knowing if your key performance indicators (KPIs) are on par.

The following benchmarks can be used when planning your first campaign, your channel lineup, in order to set performance expectations. Once you have a baseline for past campaign performances, you can use your own benchmarks to meet and beat with ongoing campaigns.

Multichannel Direct Advertising Benchmarks – Lead Generation – Blend of Devices (Mobile/Tablet/Desktop):

Display: CTR 0.10% or higher
Social (Facebook/Instagram): CTR 0.15% or higher
Social (SnapChat): Swipe Up Rate 1% or higher
Social (TikTok): CTR 0.7% or higher
Native (Desktop & Mobile): CTR 0.08% or higher
Connected TV (CTV) / Over The Top (OTT): VCR 90% or higher & CTR of 0.001% or higher
Video Display / Online Video (OLV): VCR 65% or higher & CTR 0.05% or higher
YouTube: VCR 40% or higher & CTR 0.125% or higher
Programmatic Audio: Audio Completion Rate (ACR) 80% or higher
Email: Open rate 23% or higher & CTR 1.0% or higher

If you are looking for email benchmarks when sending to your own first-party data, you can expect open and click-through rates to be much higher than that.

Aligning Expectations

CTR and VCR are great measurements for creative, getting attention and engagement, but most marketers care more about conversions, which are really a measurement of the perceived value of the offer, alignment of messaging on the landing page where targets learn more about the offer and convert (e.g., make a purchase, submit a form, download a PDF). I wish we could know what an average conversion rate is, but since each campaign is so wildly custom and different, the answer unfortunately is “it depends.” It’s best to measure your own campaigns against each other versus comparing to benchmarks. This way you’ll know what your average conversion rate is and what rate you desire to beat in your next campaign.